Report Card

The Second World War ended on September 2, 1945, with the signing of the Japanese instrument of surrender on the Pacific Front. Alongside the immense suffering the war left for the world, many negative effects, primarily poverty, persisted for years.

Shipments of chrome ore transported by cable cars between Fethiye Göcek and Gökçeovacık had come to a standstill with the end of the Second World War. Our chrome ore was being shipped first to the British and later to Nazi Germany. It was used particularly in weapons manufacturing during those years. Muğla was the province most affected by the war in the 12 islands of the Aegean Sea and the Second World War. Considering that the Wealth Tax was also introduced during those years, the local people felt the poverty to their bones.

In the post-war years, the Marshall Plan era and the 1957 Fethiye Earthquake were other negative events that piled up on the local people.

In those years, my father, who was struggling with scarcity and poverty, registered me late in the civil registry so that I would go to military service later. I started school at the age of 8. I had learned to read and write before going to school. My first teacher was my father.

Since my father could only go to school for a few years and even then very rarely, he saw educating us as his primary duty. When I brought home my first report card, all my grades were “GOOD.” Looking at my report card, he complained quite a bit, saying, “You’re as big as a stake, what is this report card…” Because those years were times of highland migrations and harvest, schools would go on summer break in mid-May.

After the May 27, 1960, Military Administration took office, Kadri Doğan Uçku, a reserve officer teacher who came from Istanbul, became my classroom teacher in the 2nd grade of Göcek Primary School. When my report card was all “EXCELLENT” in my second year, my father’s face lit up.

The education of our youth, who will shape the future of societies and therefore our country, is very important. When we look at the Republican era, we see the Atatürk era and the Village Institutes as the most successful period of education. We are trying to continue our age of enlightenment with what they raised and the wind they created.

Unfortunately, I must state that we are currently experiencing the worst and most reactionary period of education. Efforts are being made with great zeal to create a generation with weak education and culture. Education, like healthcare, is mostly, if not entirely, privatized. Intelligent and poor Anatolian children cannot receive enough education. Unfortunately, there are no Anatolian High Schools in 11 of our provinces. Students will either be able to go to Imam Hatip High Schools, vocational schools, or private schools if they have the money.

Life lessons such as Ethics, Citizenship, Health, and Agriculture, which are as important as religion-weighted courses, are being ignored. In Finland, Norway, and Japan, ethics classes are the most prominent subjects for students in their early years. In societies where mutual respect and love weaken, a conflict-prone generation is created first in the family, then at school, and in various periods of life. A student who kills their teacher, a husband who slaughters his wife with knives in front of their children… A country with a low level of education also has all its other systems distorted, broken, and backward.

If I, as a poor, uneducated shepherd-worker’s child, have been able to become a doctor, a professor, and a member of parliament today, it is primarily because I came to these days by studying in boarding schools provided to me by the state, that is, the Atatürk Republic. First and foremost, equality of opportunity in education must be ensured and maintained.

I sincerely congratulate our children and their families who are experiencing the joy of receiving their report cards. I also wish success to all young people participating in university entrance exams and the families who raised them.

I commemorate with respect, love, and gratitude the architect of the Village Institutes, the General Director of Primary Education of the Ministry of National Education, and the 'Tonguç Father' of education (İsmail Hakkı Tonguç), who made great contributions to our education system during the enlightenment period of the young Republic, on the 65th anniversary of his death on June 23, 1960.